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lpcoolgirl's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic book, so complex, so much going on! And a great ending to this series! So amazing!
chichay_joaq's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
dilema's review against another edition
5.0
This was a stunning conclusion to a really addictive trilogy that I've been anticipating forever.
I had read Twinmaker and Crashlander almost a year ago, and as they weren't available at my library, I didn't have a chance to reread them before Hollowgirl came out. As such, I had forgotten a lot of what had happened, and it took me a few chapters of this book to orient myself to what was going on and what a lot of the terms referred to. The main thing I remembered was that I had been insanely angry about the cliffhanger left open!
This is best classified as science fiction due to all of the futuristic and technological aspects to it, yet I'd also recommend it to anyone who enjoys dystopian literature.
Despite my terrible memory, I was on edge throughout most of this book. There was always some point of tension or conflict going on and figuring out how these would be solved was immensely stressful! In the best way, this had me gripped from the beginning.
I loved the conflict between various characters, especially characters who were almost the same. It was intriguing to see how people with a very similar set of memories could change and evolve from each other, and to see how a knowledge of oneself could influence the world.
There was less world building in this book than in the previous two, but I still found it extremely fascinating to envision the world Williams had created and the problems it created. Throughout the Yard and the outside reality, inventions such as glitches and fabbers made this world complex but also magical in an almost comprehensible way.
This brought up a lot of questions for me about defining human life and understanding what it truly means to be alive. Though it wasn't deeply philosophical, I enjoyed how thought provoking this was. The Consensus Court and a few of the moral questions that were thrown in were additionally intriguing.
I honestly do think that this trilogy could have been just as successful as one stand alone book, but the myriad of problems that came in a kind of chain reaction were all believable and though I was scared they might, they didn't ever read as tropes.
I don't often buy books these days, but this was well worth every cent. I highly recommend Twinmaker and its sequels to any science fiction or dystopian lover.
I had read Twinmaker and Crashlander almost a year ago, and as they weren't available at my library, I didn't have a chance to reread them before Hollowgirl came out. As such, I had forgotten a lot of what had happened, and it took me a few chapters of this book to orient myself to what was going on and what a lot of the terms referred to. The main thing I remembered was that I had been insanely angry about the cliffhanger left open!
This is best classified as science fiction due to all of the futuristic and technological aspects to it, yet I'd also recommend it to anyone who enjoys dystopian literature.
Despite my terrible memory, I was on edge throughout most of this book. There was always some point of tension or conflict going on and figuring out how these would be solved was immensely stressful! In the best way, this had me gripped from the beginning.
I loved the conflict between various characters, especially characters who were almost the same. It was intriguing to see how people with a very similar set of memories could change and evolve from each other, and to see how a knowledge of oneself could influence the world.
There was less world building in this book than in the previous two, but I still found it extremely fascinating to envision the world Williams had created and the problems it created. Throughout the Yard and the outside reality, inventions such as glitches and fabbers made this world complex but also magical in an almost comprehensible way.
This brought up a lot of questions for me about defining human life and understanding what it truly means to be alive. Though it wasn't deeply philosophical, I enjoyed how thought provoking this was. The Consensus Court and a few of the moral questions that were thrown in were additionally intriguing.
I honestly do think that this trilogy could have been just as successful as one stand alone book, but the myriad of problems that came in a kind of chain reaction were all believable and though I was scared they might, they didn't ever read as tropes.
I don't often buy books these days, but this was well worth every cent. I highly recommend Twinmaker and its sequels to any science fiction or dystopian lover.
tsana's review
4.0
Fall by Sean Williams (also called Hollowgirl in the US) is the final book in the YA science fiction Twinmaker trilogy. It follows on from Jump and Crash. Because of certain crucial events at the end of book two, which set up the premise for book three, this review, including the blurb, will contain some spoilers of the earlier books.
In the rather dramatic conclusion to Crash, in which Clair and Q/Kari uploaded themselves to the Yard to escape the destruction of all d-mat processed matter on Earth. The story of Fall opens inside the Yard simulation where Clair and Kari run into Clair's friends, who were uploaded two weeks earlier near the start of book one. An earlier version of Clair is also with them. This allows a very interesting contrast between the Clair we had gotten to know and the Clair from before two books' worth of traumatic events. It's easy to side with Clair Two, whose experiences we had just spent a book reading about, but I also enjoyed the way in which Clair Two can almost always see Clair One's point of view. Clair One, however, has fewer reference points for understanding Clair Two, which becomes a source of friction between them.
I enjoyed Fall more than Crash, overall. Among other things, there were fewer piles of bodies and, if I'm remembering correctly, more exploration of philosophical problems. The only real let-down for me was the obviousness of the ending. Exactly how the characters got to the final resolution was the main story, of course, but for me as a reader, the general nature of the ending was never in question. That's not to say it was a bad ending, just an inevitable one. And I think that Williams did a good job of throwing sufficient obstacles at Clair and friends to make the journey an exciting and entertaining one.
The other thing that struck me as I neared the end of Fall was just how much more accessible this series was compared with, for example, Astropolis, Williams's adult SF series (beginning with Saturn Returns, all read pre-blog). Most of that is probably because Twinmaker is YA and not necessarily aimed at people who already know they like hard SF. Possibly making it a good gateway series. I think it's fair to say that if you enjoyed this series, you will probably enjoy other hard science fiction books (assuming the next hard SF you try reading doesn't offend you in some way, which is unfortunately not unlikely).
Ultimately, this series is a detailed exploration of the uses and dangers of teleportation (and fabrication) technology, in what is initially a post-scarcity society. And I'm pretty sure that's more or less what it set out to be. With characters and plot drama added in, of course. I enjoyed it a lot and I would recommend it to all fans of SF and YA and YA SF.
4 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
In the rather dramatic conclusion to Crash, in which Clair and Q/Kari uploaded themselves to the Yard to escape the destruction of all d-mat processed matter on Earth. The story of Fall opens inside the Yard simulation where Clair and Kari run into Clair's friends, who were uploaded two weeks earlier near the start of book one. An earlier version of Clair is also with them. This allows a very interesting contrast between the Clair we had gotten to know and the Clair from before two books' worth of traumatic events. It's easy to side with Clair Two, whose experiences we had just spent a book reading about, but I also enjoyed the way in which Clair Two can almost always see Clair One's point of view. Clair One, however, has fewer reference points for understanding Clair Two, which becomes a source of friction between them.
I enjoyed Fall more than Crash, overall. Among other things, there were fewer piles of bodies and, if I'm remembering correctly, more exploration of philosophical problems. The only real let-down for me was the obviousness of the ending. Exactly how the characters got to the final resolution was the main story, of course, but for me as a reader, the general nature of the ending was never in question. That's not to say it was a bad ending, just an inevitable one. And I think that Williams did a good job of throwing sufficient obstacles at Clair and friends to make the journey an exciting and entertaining one.
The other thing that struck me as I neared the end of Fall was just how much more accessible this series was compared with, for example, Astropolis, Williams's adult SF series (beginning with Saturn Returns, all read pre-blog). Most of that is probably because Twinmaker is YA and not necessarily aimed at people who already know they like hard SF. Possibly making it a good gateway series. I think it's fair to say that if you enjoyed this series, you will probably enjoy other hard science fiction books (assuming the next hard SF you try reading doesn't offend you in some way, which is unfortunately not unlikely).
Ultimately, this series is a detailed exploration of the uses and dangers of teleportation (and fabrication) technology, in what is initially a post-scarcity society. And I'm pretty sure that's more or less what it set out to be. With characters and plot drama added in, of course. I enjoyed it a lot and I would recommend it to all fans of SF and YA and YA SF.
4 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
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